March 29, 2024

We have a personal stake

From Karon Finn

Creston

Quote from Sherrie Taha, Democratic candidate for Secretary of Agriculture: “If you eat...If you drink water...If you breathe air in Iowa...Then...You have a personal stake in how the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship works.”

We also have a personal stake in who the governor is. Who the secretary of agriculture is. Who our state representative is. Who the state senator is. Who the United States senator is. Who the United States representative is.

In May 2014 approximately 500,000 central Iowa customers received a letter in their
water bill from the Des Moines Water Works stating:

“Recent spring melting caused significant water quality concerns for Des Moines Water Works. In particular, high ammonia levels have been present in our rivers from livestock runoff and other upstream land uses. Many customers may have noticed chlorine taste and smell in their drinking water during the early spring months. Weeks of disinfection treatment was necessary to reduce runoff impacts, however, disinfection has its own risks.”

From Shel Silverstein’s book, “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and his poem “Lazy Jane” with a few changes by me:

“Clueless, clueless, clueless, clueless, clueless, clueless Average Joe and Jane, they want a drink of water so they wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait for it to rain.”

The water alert from Des Moines Water Works should be a wake up call to all lowans and a call to action to advocate for cleaner source waters and to question whether voluntary water protection measures work.

The Branstad administration has been very obstructive when it comes to protecting our waterways. The administration has also refused to grant local control to our elected county officials. The Adair County Supervisors three times turned down the building and expansion of hog confinements in Adair County. Now, the Branstad Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has overturned that local county decision and the only recourse left to the neighbors around the confinements is to go to the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) which is a nine member board stacked with five members appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad. Those five members have a financial interest in owning or building confinements in the state of Iowa.

How unfair is the Branstad administration? Is this how lowans should treat fellow
lowans?